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Elder loneliness is something I think about a lot. My grandparents on my father’s side are both 94. They’re also both hard of hearing. My grandpa had scarlett f

Elder loneliness is something I think about a lot. My grandparents on my father’s side are both 94. They’re also both hard of hearing. My grandpa had scarlett fever as a child and went almost deaf. He struggled through school and eventually got hearing aids in his 20’s. A huge improvement for him and every time he recounts that story he revels at the wonders of technology. I like to think my love of tech just runs in my blood. My grandma, on the other hand, has just lost her hearing in her older age. And she refuses to get hearing aids because she associates them with Grandpa not listening to her. He sometimes turns them off to zone her out :D I live in Boston and they live about an hour away towards Cape Code. I make an effort to visit about once every two months, but there’s so much stuff they miss from my life and don’t see because their not on social media. They don’t know how to use a computer or iPad. We’ve tried with no luck. One time I sent them photos in the mail of my new apartment, the first one I moved into with my then girlfriend (and now fiancé) about 5 years ago. I took the photos on my phone, printed them at CVS, wrote a caption on each one and mailed them off to my grandparents. They loved it and talked about it for months. I think I was even their favorite grandkid for a few months (I have three siblings and we compete with each other). Fast forward 5 years later to my grandpa’s 94th birthday and I didn’t know what to get him. They’re house is full of stuff and they don’t need anything. I had been thinking about the photos I sent them for a few years and how if I made that easier, I’d probably do it more. Finally, I decided to make it into a script for our family to text photos to a unique number and once a month they get printed and shipped to Grandma & Grandpa. Now they’re regularly getting photos from everyone and they love it. We even compete to see who gets a photo on the fridge each month. I told a few friends about the hack and they wanted it, so my older brother and I built it out into a full fledged product and recently launched NanaGram: https://NanaGram.co https://NanaGram.co Check it out if you have Grandparents and want to make their days a bit happier by feeling more connected to you. Would also love to hear HN’s thoughts too. Thanks! Edit: spelling, grammar, and clarity. And PSA - call your grandparents!

toomuchtodo 9y ago
I just wanted to say you’re doing an awesome job by making them feel included as family, and that you’re a good person for making the effort. To those reading this, make the time and effort now. Life is a long time to have regrets about what you wish you had done. My grandmother lives in a retirement community and 9 times out of 10, families never come to visit the people she knows in her circles. The photos are perfect for non tech literate elders, and while I haven’t checked out your product while mobile, looking forward to checking it out this evening!
- andygcook 9y ago
  Thanks! NanaGram’s made a big difference for them and I’m glad we gave up nights/weeekends to build it. The photos also give us more stuff to talk about during visits. One other interesting unanticipated side effect is that we built the service to let your (approved) family all send photos into the same phone number for the same delivery. There’s a web UI that you can log into and see all the photos. You also get a text notification when new photos are sent in by someone else. Now my siblings and I have a private social network of sorts. There’s stuff on there I wouldn’t share to the world at large, but would with my family. It’s a good way to keep updated with what’s going on with my family too.
  - cpeterso 9y ago
    Do you have offline advertising of NanaGram in retirement communities? That seems like a great way to reach more customers. Get "Nana" and the retirement community staff to market your product for you. :) Another idea: if the photo has any date/time or location metadata, you could print that on the photo so the recipient has more information about the photos when they look at them later.
    - aacook 9y ago
      Thinking about things like that but don't want to end up like Saul Goodman. Reddit suggested an Adopt a Nana last week (https://redd.it/7fg6q3 https://redd.it/7fg6q3) which I love in theory but would need to go deep on to make it work in practice.
    - aacook 9y ago
      I hadn't thought of metadata yet. I'm unsure if it comes through MMS. I'll have to check. We do know who is sending in the photo and we support captions (scroll down to the mushroom hunting photos for an example). When captions get added, we add the name and date of the user who added the photo. Lots of improvements to make in this area, for example, I'll probably release a way to insert full note cards (maybe 1 free per order) into the shipment this month.
chis 9y ago
This is a really cool idea. You could totally get on shark tank, they love stuff like this.
- aacook 9y ago
  At some point, Shark Tank could be fun. Someone on Reddit mentioned a similar postcard app and I still need to find and watch that episode. Right now the plan is to spend as much time as I can talking to customers and improving the product. I would like to get some local tv media coverage in December. I'll wear a suit and a bowtie and say hi to my Grandparents through the TV. (And bring Andy too if he can swing it.)
theklub 9y ago
So this whole comment was an ad? Great marketing.
- andygcook 9y ago
  To be honest, I read the whole article from the parent, which got my thinking about my grandparents because this topic's been on my mind. Then I just started typing and didn't really have a plan of where it'd end up. We honestly don't really make much money on the whole project because the margins are razor thing. It's not software and there's a physical product that needs to be mailed, which costs a lot. We could jack up the price, but that would make it less affordable for most people. The real goal is to just do some good in the world and connect more families with their elders. Yes, will admit there's some gross margin, but it doesn't even cover server expenses, needed software, etc. Been funding it on my credit card.
  - theklub 9y ago
    I think its a cool idea. I'm surprised there isn't something like that already.
    - andygcook 9y ago
      Yeah, I was surprised too. We tried looking for something so we didn't have to build it, but couldn't find anything that worked the way we wanted. There's a few services that let you send post cards, but it's hard to tell a compelling story with just one picture. They also don't look great framed. We've also seen some photo book services too, but they just tend to print on regular paper. We use real Kodak/Fujifilm photo paper, which look good around the house or in frames.
    - fjsolwmv 9y ago
      Of course there are many things like that already: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-share-digital-photos-with-gadget-free-family-members-1444930831 http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-share-digital-photos-with...
mikeokner 9y ago
This is one of the best ideas (and execution) I've seen in a while! Great example of solving a problem w/ technology and turning it into a business.
- aacook 9y ago
  Thank you. Means a lot. It's been the most interesting journey I've had to date. Unsure of where it'll lead but I plan to push through the end of December. I've been at it essentially full-time since the beginning of September with help from Andy on nights/weekends. Prior to this project, I had a failed solo side project. This project is different in so many ways, in part because I have people to talk to. For example, my friend Josh has been incredibly helpful on the product design side, talking on the phone with me once a week. And of course Andy, a world-class brother who I love. We need to reach something like 2,000 Nanas to make this a full-time focus (for me) and I think we have a shot. But if even if we don't get there, the amount of happiness generated in the world from just the first 7 deliveries outweighs the sum of all other happiness generated for everything I've worked on to date. Next week 23 more orders are being delivered and it'll be awesome fuel. Even though I'm being a bit irresponsible bootstrapping this project through to the end of December, I'll have zero regrets if we don't end up getting to 2k.
  - mikeokner 9y ago
    I think you definitely have a shot. I'd suggest spinning up some social media accounts to widen your engagement since you're going to have a ton of overlap with the Instagram/Snapchat crowd. Also your prices for the higher tiers look on the cheap side. Don't be afraid to play with pricing.
Aloha 9y ago
Well, I think this is a GREAT idea - in the spirit of the season, I did my part and shared about it on Facebook.
- aacook 9y ago
  Thank you!

toomuchtodo 9y ago

I just wanted to say you’re doing an awesome job by making them feel included as family, and that you’re a good person for making the effort. To those reading this, make the time and effort now. Life is a long time to have regrets about what you wish you had done. My grandmother lives in a retirement community and 9 times out of 10, families never come to visit the people she knows in her circles. The photos are perfect for non tech literate elders, and while I haven’t checked out your product while mobile, looking forward to checking it out this evening!

andygcook 9y ago
Thanks! NanaGram’s made a big difference for them and I’m glad we gave up nights/weeekends to build it. The photos also give us more stuff to talk about during visits. One other interesting unanticipated side effect is that we built the service to let your (approved) family all send photos into the same phone number for the same delivery. There’s a web UI that you can log into and see all the photos. You also get a text notification when new photos are sent in by someone else. Now my siblings and I have a private social network of sorts. There’s stuff on there I wouldn’t share to the world at large, but would with my family. It’s a good way to keep updated with what’s going on with my family too.
- cpeterso 9y ago
  Do you have offline advertising of NanaGram in retirement communities? That seems like a great way to reach more customers. Get "Nana" and the retirement community staff to market your product for you. :) Another idea: if the photo has any date/time or location metadata, you could print that on the photo so the recipient has more information about the photos when they look at them later.
  - aacook 9y ago
    Thinking about things like that but don't want to end up like Saul Goodman. Reddit suggested an Adopt a Nana last week (https://redd.it/7fg6q3 https://redd.it/7fg6q3) which I love in theory but would need to go deep on to make it work in practice.
  - aacook 9y ago
    I hadn't thought of metadata yet. I'm unsure if it comes through MMS. I'll have to check. We do know who is sending in the photo and we support captions (scroll down to the mushroom hunting photos for an example). When captions get added, we add the name and date of the user who added the photo. Lots of improvements to make in this area, for example, I'll probably release a way to insert full note cards (maybe 1 free per order) into the shipment this month.

chis 9y ago

This is a really cool idea. You could totally get on shark tank, they love stuff like this.

aacook 9y ago
At some point, Shark Tank could be fun. Someone on Reddit mentioned a similar postcard app and I still need to find and watch that episode. Right now the plan is to spend as much time as I can talking to customers and improving the product. I would like to get some local tv media coverage in December. I'll wear a suit and a bowtie and say hi to my Grandparents through the TV. (And bring Andy too if he can swing it.)

theklub 9y ago

So this whole comment was an ad? Great marketing.

andygcook 9y ago
To be honest, I read the whole article from the parent, which got my thinking about my grandparents because this topic's been on my mind. Then I just started typing and didn't really have a plan of where it'd end up. We honestly don't really make much money on the whole project because the margins are razor thing. It's not software and there's a physical product that needs to be mailed, which costs a lot. We could jack up the price, but that would make it less affordable for most people. The real goal is to just do some good in the world and connect more families with their elders. Yes, will admit there's some gross margin, but it doesn't even cover server expenses, needed software, etc. Been funding it on my credit card.
- theklub 9y ago
  I think its a cool idea. I'm surprised there isn't something like that already.
  - andygcook 9y ago
    Yeah, I was surprised too. We tried looking for something so we didn't have to build it, but couldn't find anything that worked the way we wanted. There's a few services that let you send post cards, but it's hard to tell a compelling story with just one picture. They also don't look great framed. We've also seen some photo book services too, but they just tend to print on regular paper. We use real Kodak/Fujifilm photo paper, which look good around the house or in frames.
  - fjsolwmv 9y ago
    Of course there are many things like that already: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-share-digital-photos-with-gadget-free-family-members-1444930831 http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-share-digital-photos-with...

mikeokner 9y ago

This is one of the best ideas (and execution) I've seen in a while! Great example of solving a problem w/ technology and turning it into a business.

aacook 9y ago
Thank you. Means a lot. It's been the most interesting journey I've had to date. Unsure of where it'll lead but I plan to push through the end of December. I've been at it essentially full-time since the beginning of September with help from Andy on nights/weekends. Prior to this project, I had a failed solo side project. This project is different in so many ways, in part because I have people to talk to. For example, my friend Josh has been incredibly helpful on the product design side, talking on the phone with me once a week. And of course Andy, a world-class brother who I love. We need to reach something like 2,000 Nanas to make this a full-time focus (for me) and I think we have a shot. But if even if we don't get there, the amount of happiness generated in the world from just the first 7 deliveries outweighs the sum of all other happiness generated for everything I've worked on to date. Next week 23 more orders are being delivered and it'll be awesome fuel. Even though I'm being a bit irresponsible bootstrapping this project through to the end of December, I'll have zero regrets if we don't end up getting to 2k.
- mikeokner 9y ago
  I think you definitely have a shot. I'd suggest spinning up some social media accounts to widen your engagement since you're going to have a ton of overlap with the Instagram/Snapchat crowd. Also your prices for the higher tiers look on the cheap side. Don't be afraid to play with pricing.

Aloha 9y ago

Well, I think this is a GREAT idea - in the spirit of the season, I did my part and shared about it on Facebook.

aacook 9y ago
Thank you!